Tom Hanks has had an unbelievably successful career. Many people (including myself) consider him the greatest actor of all time, and deservingly so. He has made hit movie after hit movie AND brought coronavirus attention to the forefront of people’s minds (not intentionally, but nonetheless!). Anyway, I think it’s fair to say that Hanks’s stretch of movies from 1992-2002 was the greatest ten-year run of any actor ever, in the history of the universe. Let’s take a looks at what Tommy put out over that time:
- 1992: A League of Their Own
- 1993: Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia
- 1994: Forrest Gump
- 1995: Apollo 13, Toy Story
- 1996: That Thing You Do!
- 1997: (Took a well-needed break)
- 1998: Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Mail
- 1999: The Green Mile, Toy Story 2
- 2000: Cast Away
- 2001: Band of Brothers (Executive producer)
- 2002: Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can
Unless you’ve been living under a rock your whole life, or are younger than twelve years old, you’ve heard of, if not watched, at least 80% of the movies above. He made 14 movies in ten years, four of which are arguably the best movies of all time in their respective genres.
Saving Private Ryan is probably the greatest war movie ever, and a top ten movie of all time. I could be considered biased because it’s personally my favorite movie ever, but regardless, you can’t deny that it’s about as close to perfection as a war movie can get. It’s also worth mentioning that while he didn’t star in Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks, along with Steven Spielberg gave us one of the best miniseries’ of all time. I recently made it the #1 TV show to watch during the COVID-19 quarantine, and deservingly so. It’s not a surprise that just a few years after making arguably the best WWII movie of all time, Hanks gave us the best WWII TV show of all time – the guy just loves those stories. Legend.
Toy Story is was the world’s introduction to the animation powerhouse known as Pixar. Pixar has missed on a few movies, but for the most part, they only put out classics. Toy Story should go down as one of, if not the best animated movie of all time, and the fact that if propelled Pixar to the forefront of the animated movie world makes it all the more impressive.
The first time Tom Hanks teamed up with Meg Ryan was in 1990’s Joe Versus the Volcano, which is the ultimate movie to watch on shrooms. Actually, it was so weird when I watched it sober that I think I’d be way too freaked out if I watched it high. Regardless, if you want to watch something that is truly unique I recommend watching it. 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, however, was a much more traditional and marketable movie for Hanks and Ryan. It’s also one of the best rom-coms ever made. As someone who loves The Bachelor, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I am a huge fan of rom coms, and Sleepless in Seattle is a top-tier choice.
As far as sports movies go, specifically baseball movies, A League of Their Own is one of the best of all time. It tells the story of the first female professional baseball league amidst the backdrop of WWII (inarguably one of Hanks’s favorite era’s). It also gave us the classic line “There’s no crying in baseball!” delivered by Hanks himself. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, and I don’t think anyone else could’ve played the role of Jimmy Dugan better than Tom Hanks.
And I couldn’t write a Tom Hanks blog without mentioning Forrest Gump. It’s absurd to me that there are a group of people out there who actually think this is a bad movie. I understand that the movie’s storyline is absurd in its own right, but it’s a FANTASY. In the real world it would be nearly impossible for one man (with an IQ of 75) to make it out of rural Alabama to be a college football star, war hero, ping pong phenom, millionaire restaurateur, and cross country (literally) runner, but that’s the film’s charm! I’ll admit the Jenny storyline can get frustrating, but the rest of the movie overwhelmingly redeems the plot. I’m sure the same people that hate Forrest Gump also hate Inglorious Bastards and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood because those movies took actual historical events and modified the details to change the course of history. Idiots. Love you Hanx!
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